Montauk # 29

Autumn morning
Again
Ditch Plains
Off-shore easterly
Surfers riding a chest-high swell
Seagulls skating the crest
A bright sun
No sunglasses
Squint
Richie Boy thinking
Work or surf___
A fishing boat chugging to harbor
At least twenty aged surf bums
On the break___
We
On the beach
Richie Boy
A friend for almost fifty years
On a bench
Rubbing his knee
Surveying the ocean___
1993
Bingin Beach
Bali
A forever left
Forever overhead
Too big for me
No matter
I go out
On a borrowed board
A potato chip___
A big set coming in
Paddle
Over the first wave
Paddle
Over the second wave
Richie and me over
My arms al dente noddles
The third wave
Richie makes to the lip
Look back
His face horror
Then the wave buries me in a washing machine
There is no up or down
No richie
No Bali
Only the head over heels tumble
Over the coral reef___
Under a long time
Thirty seconds
Forty
Pop to the surface
Grab a breath buried again
Longer
At the mercy
Of Lord Baruna
The Balinese God of the Sea
I don't pray
I'm an atheist
Also
I'm too busy drowning
Gulp Glug Glup___
Spit up on the sand
Blowing out ocean
My beach boy
Relieved
I back from the dead
Reincarnated once more
Into this body
It wasn't the first time
Nor the last
No more surfing that day
Time to spit out ocean
And drink beers into the night
With Richie
The massage girls
On the Bingin Cliff
Sampai Jumpa___
Time elastic
Snap forward to October 2024
Ditch Plains
Montauk
Richie
Rubs his knees
Yesterday morning
A good hour in the line-up
Pushing it hard__
Now rubbing his knees
No surf today
We look at each other
We work-bound
But
Just not yet
Thank you for life Lord Baruna
Terima kasih banyak___